Mets' Brett Baty leaves game against Marlins with 'right-side soreness'

MIAMI — With the season on the brink Thursday and a lefthander on the mound in the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza had to ask himself a simple question with a difficult answer: Whom do you trust?

Once upon a time, Brett Baty might not have entered in the equation in that kind of situation. He’s historically struggled against lefthanded pitchers, and though his defense is solid enough, prolonged cold streaks at the plate took him from being the Opening Day third baseman in 2024 to minor-league banishment after the first two months of the season.

But things change and people evolve, and Mendoza’s (winning) lineup decision wasn’t all that shocking. Baty started at third, hit seventh and rewarded his manager’s trust, hitting a three-run homer off Imanaga that proved to be the biggest blow in a must-win game. It was his career-high 19th homer and his third off a lefty.

Which is what made Friday’s development so concerning. With the season on the line again (as it likely will be for the rest of the weekend), Mendoza again trusted Baty — this time against Sandy Alcantara. But Baty, who’s grown so much in the past few months, hurt himself swinging through a pitch in the first inning of the Mets’ game against the Marlins and grimaced after making a throw in the bottom of the inning before disappearing down the tunnel.

Baty was replaced by Ronny Mauricio because of what the Mets termed “right-side soreness,” which could be a potential oblique injury. No further updates were immediately available.

One thing is certain: The Mets are better with Baty. Entering Friday, he was slashing .292/.354/.480 in the second half of the season. Aa career .200 hitter against lefthanded pitchers, he’s hitting .247 against them this year.

“He continues to earn it,” Mendoza said before the game. “The more at-bats he gets against lefties and the way he plays defense, he continues to earn it, and there’s a good chance we’ll continue to run him out there.”

There are plenty of reasons for Baty’s improvement, but one key one — one that plagued him earlier in his career — is that he no longer seems to let cold streaks snowball on him.

When asked about better success against lefties, Baty said Thursday that it’s been a combination of hard work and mindset — “just hanging in there and not trying to do too much,” he said.

He credited Francisco Lindor’s theory — the one that says that if you give everything you have to this game, it’ll give back to you.

Mendoza and Lindor lauded his consistency.

It’s “been outstanding,” Lindor said Thursday. “The way he works and how he prepares, it shows up. He continues to get better and continues to be more consistent. I think we haven’t fully seen what Brett Baty is capable of doing, so I can’t wait for him to continue to go out there, day in and day out, and help us win.”

There’s another aspect, too. Baty has had to fail a lot. He played 50 major-league games in 2024 and batted .225 before getting sent down for the remainder of the season. Even this year, he was optioned on April 24 before getting recalled on May 5. He’s had to claw to get back to this spot, even as the noise around him already was declaring him a bust.

“He’s maturing as a player and [he went] through a lot of adversity and so many challenges,” Mendoza said. “He ended up getting sent down last year] and never got an opportunity. This year, he had to fight again. I think it was him understanding that it was never going to be easy.”

Earning trust almost never is. Now the Mets have to hope he has the opportunity to keep doing it.

Notes & quotes: Clay Holmes will start Saturday, and the Mets’ bullpen solution will continue to remain flexible and may factor in Sean Manaea and David Peterson. “The only thing we know is that Clay will start and then we’ll go from there,” Mendoza said, saying they opted for Holmes over Manaea because “Clay was feeling a lot better” than the lefty after both pitched in relief Wednesday. “Sean is feeling good today, but [it was] based on how they were feeling yesterday.” . . . Tommy John surgery was recommended for Reed Garrett, but he’ll get a second opinion . . . Kodai Senga will continue to throw bullpen sessions in Port St. Lucie; the Mets have not yet considered shutting him down.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.